The use of semi-active homing guidance for a missile, of itself, is known. A radar beam is usually employed as the target illuminator and the missile homes on the reflected illumination from said radar beam. A radar illuminator suffers from weight and complexity disadvantages and is not readily adaptable to being carried and operated by a single man. The present invention uses a compact, portable laser illuminator which could be carried and operated by a single man.
There are known missile guidance systems which can be carried by a single man such as the Redeye missile, which uses a man carried optical target tracking telescope with an infrared homing-all-the-way guidance system on the missile. Another type of guidance system that can be man carried is that used by Entac, which uses a missile command-guided over trailing wires by means of a manually operated "joy-stick" control box. The missile, itself, can be transported separately from the control box.
The Redeye missile is used against aircraft and could not effectively track land targets because of the infrared radiation clutter from the ground. The Entac missile has the disadvantage of using trailing wires and could not be used effectively against aircraft.
The invention does not rely upon radiation from the target and does not employ trailing wires or other command links and can be effective against air or ground targets.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system for intercepting a target by using a missile homing on reflected laser illumination of the target.